27 February 1978 (The
Press-Courier, Oxnard, California)
Two air traffic controllers and
several other people sighted huge green lights near Alisal (California), a Salinas suburb (located
about five miles east of Salinas), on 26 February 1978, at around 7:10 p.m., The
Press-Courier informs:
Quote from the article:
“ ‘Something did happen in that
area, but what it was is unknown,’ Salinas police Lt. Ray Jackson said today. He
said police had no explanation for the lights.
Most reports mentioned four ‘very,
very large’ green lights, Jackson said. One person said they were moving at
about 50 miles
per hour. Another said the lights seemed to be attached to a single object
about four stories high, Jackson said.
He (Air Traffic Controller Richard
Lockwood) said the light appeared to be two to four miles away, about 30 feet in diameter and
about 200 feet
above the ground.
‘By the time you could count
one-two-three, it had gone down,’ he said. He said he did not think it was an
aircraft since it was ‘a solid mass of green.’
Although the sightings were
near Alisal High School, Jackson said the lights were reportedly too big to be
devised by kids as optical tricks.”
“Salinas, California”
(City-Data.com):
“Alisal, CA” (mapquest.com):
Aerial view of Salinas, California
(flickr.com photo)